VacationSelector
The pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto
KyotoThe pagoda at Kiyomizu-dera
Lower Broadway and its honky-tonks, Nashville
NashvilleLower Broadway and its honky-tonks

Photos: Kyoto by Bert Mulder, Pexels License; Nashville by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kyoto or Nashville?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Kyoto for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Kyoto’s own page.

Choose Nashville for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Nashville’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Kyoto 15, Nashville 14: Kyoto leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Kyoto 85, Nashville 62: Kyoto leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Kyoto 96, Nashville 50: Kyoto leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Kyoto 35, Nashville 70: Nashville leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kyoto 70, Nashville 46: Kyoto leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Kyoto 96, Nashville 52: Kyoto leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Kyoto 68, Nashville 55: Kyoto leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Kyoto 72, Nashville 30: Kyoto leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Kyoto 72, Nashville 42: Kyoto leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Kyoto 50, Nashville 30: Kyoto leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kyoto 60, Nashville 82: Nashville leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kyoto 70, Nashville 20: Kyoto leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kyoto and Nashville.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Kyoto
Best match
66match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Nashville
46match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Kyoto in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
225 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Nashville in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
104 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
KyotoNashville

Where the figures come from

Kyoto's sunshine is measured 43 km from the centre, at Osaka.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kyoto: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Kyoto (3.2 km from centre). Nashville: 1991-2020 normals, Nashville Airport (9.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKyotoNashville
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation51 m182 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)81 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsNashville International Airport (BNA)10 km from centre122 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKyotoNashville
City population1,463,723689,447
People per km²1,768506
Museums within 10 km7712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kyoto or Nashville somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.